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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23283625">Cherche La Femme</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neferit/pseuds/Neferit'>Neferit</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dragon Age - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Dragon Age Kink Meme, Gen, Kink Meme, Male-Female Friendship</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 10:13:47</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,594</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23283625</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neferit/pseuds/Neferit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>If there had been a theme for Oghren's life, it had been <i>look for the woman</i>. The women who shaped Oghren's life, some for the worse, some for better, some for both and one for the best.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Alistair/Female Cousland (Dragon Age), Branka/Oghren (Dragon Age), Felsi/Oghren (Dragon Age), Female Cousland/Oghren (Dragon Age)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Cherche La Femme</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Sort of a self-fill for my prompt that I posted on dragonage_kink meme over. The prompt is:<br/><i>So, this had been the first time I actually did the Paragon of Her Kind quest before I did the Broken Circle, and seeing Oghren in the Fade just about broke my heart, as I watched him being mocked, and when asking him (rather outraged at the behaviour of those bloody demons) why he doesn't do anything... his "I'm used to that" was a bit too much for me. And since my F!Cousland tends to be BFFs with Oghren, I request something where someone is mocking Oghren for whatever reason, and the F!Warden (I'd prefer Cousland, but I'll take any F!Warden here) goes all her (Cousland) spitfire-ey herself at them for being nasty to her favourite dwarf. After what she had seen in the Fade, nobody will mock him like that ever again.</i><br/>Well, get ready for some Ogren-Cousland gen fluff :) Also, the ending is a bit of an AU, but really, who cares about that anymore...</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em> Look for the woman. </em>
</p><p>The first woman who shaped Oghren’s view of women had been - as was expected - his own mother.</p><p>His father would sometimes speak in that wistful tone about the beautiful dwarven lass with fiery hair he met and fell for as soon as he laid his eyes on her. </p><p>The only thing that remained of that picture had been those fiery hair; the woman no longer the pretty lass after all that alcohol she would drink, her face twisting into a grimace whenever her husband attempted to remove a bottle from her hold, her fist swinging at his face.</p><p>Oghren hated the woman who gave life to him, for making the life of his father so miserable, as he had to watch the girl he loved so much slipping away, in her place a volatile stranger. He promised himself not to fall like that.</p><p>
  <em> Look for the woman. </em>
</p><p>The second woman to shape his view of woman had been Branka; a bright girl who sure wouldn’t rate on the top of men’s wet dreams and who had less social graces than a dead nug, but who had that certain <em> something </em> that attracted him to her.</p><p>It took him months to make her even notice him as something else than a bother, but when it did happen, it was a beacon of hope in his life.</p><p>A pity it didn’t last longer.</p><p>Branka was a genius in her caste, and one day, the Assembly voted on the issue of new Paragons. And she had been picked; first Paragon in generations. A new house was formed very quickly, his own house joining with hers and everything seemed to be just great.</p><p>But then Branka found some mentions of Paragon Caridin and his golems, and all the peace they knew so far had been tossed into garbage.</p><p>One day, he returned from several weeks long mission in the Deep Roads, only to find his entire house gone.</p><p>Being the butt of all kinds of jokes for months had been bad. He suffered through the humiliation of being left behind for a very long time, until some yapping puppy of a noble idiot dared to challenge him to a fight in Arena.</p><p>He didn’t even realize he killed the brat, until there were suddenly people tearing at his weapon, and he was stripped of his rights to wield it in the city he was sworn to protect.</p><p>
  <em> Look for the woman. </em>
</p><p>The third woman who entered his life had been Felsi; pretty dwarven lass who didn’t mind being with him, and who seemed to actually care about him. And of course he had to start drinking; he drank so heavily that not even Felsi, who could take a lot, was able to stick with anymore.</p><p>
  <em> She left. </em>
</p><p>It hurt more than he was willing to acknowledge, and he had drown that hurt in so much drink it nearly killed him.</p><p>For two long years he had been asking for an expedition to search for Branka. For two sodding years nobody gave a damn, unless it was to mock him for being left behind and then, suddenly, everyone seemed to care about Branka a lot.</p><p>He told them all to sod off.</p><p>
  <em> Look for the woman. </em>
</p><p>But then there had been this woman; a topsider, a Grey Warden. Her name was Allison Cousland, and if he understood it properly, she was a noble on the surface; a fairly high ranked one at that. Made him wonder what by the tits of his Ancestors did she screwed up to get herself into the Wardens, instead of hunting herself some husband. Wasn’t that what the noble women did? Look for a husband?</p><p>And why was she looking at him like that?</p><p>He told her exactly the same thing he told everyone else, when they asked him about Branka - to sod off and leave him alone. She took him by surprise, when she just nodded calmly and asked one more question, before she left:</p><p>“And what if I really want to help you?”</p><p>“Too little, too late, Warden,” was all he told her, before he hollered for barkeep to bring him more ale. It made him feel a bit self-conscious, when he intercepted her by the entrance to the mines and demanded to go with her.</p><p>Again, she gave him that knowing look, and that was it. He became part of their little group of misfits - a bastard Warden (the fatherless kind, as he overheard the man saying to her, making her smirk), a qunari and herself. He didn’t speak much during their travel through the Deep Roads, keeping to himself most of the time, leaving their leader to decide on how they will do things, and it felt nice to once again be in company of people who didn’t see him as a failure to be ridiculed without repercussion.</p><p>Only on two things he didn’t agree with the Warden - first, it had been that blighted bastard Ruck and how she spoke to him in such soft tones in made his own heart twitch painfully in his chest as he watched the blighter look at her with naked adoration in his eyes.</p><p>And then there had been Branka. How much he wanted the woman to be alive, but when he saw what she did to her house, how she sacrificed them all and then trapped even those who came in search of her in the labyrinth full of traps, designed by the ancient Paragon himself… He just couldn’t let that slide, no matter how much he wanted her to come back with him, as if everything could go back as it were so long ago.</p><p>Warden offered him a place in their group, bluntly telling him that they needed everyone who would be willing to fight with them and would not turn anyone who was willing to go with them away.</p><p>When he stepped out of the gates to Orzammar, for a moment he felt as if he should fall up into the sky, only Warden’s hand on his shoulder brought him back into the reality, her calm voice telling him to take his time. </p><p>Sweet mother Stone, how could anyone survive in a world without a bloody ceiling?!</p><p>Something changed between them, when they went to get the mages to fulfill the treaty between the Circle and the Grey Wardens. They were trapped in the Fade, in the sort-of-another-world where the topsiders went to dream.</p><p>He didn’t truly realize that the tavern he had been trapped in wasn’t real, until the Warden appeared by his side and incredulously watched his fellow drinkers insult him and him doing absolutely nothing, only grip his tankard tighter to stop himself from responding.</p><p>She responded on his behalf, nearly ripping the demons masking themselves as drunkards apart with her bare hands, snarling at them, before the whole illusion changed and he found himself facing the demon who trapped them in the Fade, the others by his side.</p><p>Once freed, he found himself facing their leader, an unreadable expression on her face, and he felt himself sinking, until she looked him directly in the eye and said: “That was for the last time anyone, a mortal or a demon, dared to say anything like that.”</p><p>And then she left, leaving him gaping after her, others not understanding what she meant.</p><p>She wouldn’t leave him alone since, though, seeking his company when their group made a camp, or when they stopped at some inn during their travels. Sometimes, she would bring him a small flask of this or that, all of it highly prized liquor that had to cost a fortune - and she shared it with him, sipping at it, coughing under the kick the liquids had and he laughed at her. They would talk, she telling him what led her to the Wardens, and after a while, he would tell her about Orzammar, and about Branka.</p><p>One day, he told her about Felsi, and how he would have liked to find her again.</p><p>He only received a curious look, and for a time, that was it. Until she located the woman, and brought him there, standing by his side, how he slowly lost himself in his cringeworthy attempts at flirting.</p><p>Then she turned the disaster into something resembling success, with just a few pointed remarks and what he came to recognize as Cousland charm; Felsi watching him with renewed interest in her eyes, offering words he came to understand as encouragement of his affections.</p><p>Later, he offered Allison the brew his family jealously guarded the recipe for; rich in flavour, warming one’s insides without blunting their senses with alcohol.</p><p>It had been their secret, one carefully hidden, eve if he had a feeling that her man, Alistair, had some idea what had been going on.</p><p>But, as all the fun and interesting things must come to an end, and so did the Blight. Their Wardens being coronated now and in a few months time, after <em> ooh </em>, they will get married.</p><p>Allison, or Princess Consort now, asked him to become her bodyguard, so he would have a stable job, and could have his life with Felsi now.</p><p>So, when he thought about it, as he watched her being led down the aisle by her brother, her husband-to-be unable to keep his eyes from her, he allowed himself a thought.</p><p>Look for the woman. Yes, look for the woman, for at least this one turned his life around, and this time, finally for the better.</p>
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